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Italian Renaissance (1330-1550)

Rome: Papal Control and Early Resurrection (1400-1484)

Venice and Milan (1300-1499)

Summary

The already corrupt Papacy reached perhaps its ultimate depths during the reign
of Rodrigo Borgia, who was elected to the papacy in 1492 after the death of the
generally unnoteworthy Innocent VIII, and who assumed the name Pope Alexander
VI. Borgia, a Spaniard, had been at the center of Vatican affairs for 30
years as a Cardinal. When he became pope, myth and legend quickly rose up
around his family. Alexander VI had four acknowledged children, three males and
one female. Alexander VI was himself known as a corrupt pope bent on his
family's political and material success, to an even greater extent than Sixtus
IV had been. It was no secret that Alexander VI's oldest son Cesare, was a
murderer, and had killed many of his political opponents. Lucrezia Borgia,
Alexander VI's daughter, was married three times in the pope's efforts to create
beneficial alliances. Under Alexander VI, the Papacy continued to grow
politically and economically strong, but the means by which it grew were much
questioned throughout Italy.

Alexander VI died in 1503, and was succeeded by Pope Julius II. Under
Julius II, both the city of Rome and the Papacy entered a Golden Age.
Julius II continued the consolidation of power in the Papal States, encouraged
the devotion to learning and writing in Rome begun by Pope Nicholas V, and,
foremost, continued the process of rebuilding Rome physically. The most
prominent project among many was the rebuilding of St. Peter's basilica, one of
the most sacred buildings in Christianity. The creation of a new St. Peter's,
and indeed a new Rome, taxed the city. Ancient structures were demolished to
make room and building materials for the new buildings of the city.

Artists flocked to Rome during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to study
the ruins and contribute to the new structures of Rome, striving to connect the
new with the style of the ancient. Many took architectural ideas gleaned from
the study of ancient Rome to the cities of the North, and Florence, Milan, and
Venice soon showed the signs of Roman influence.

Rome received its final push to renaissance glory from Pope Leo X, second
son of Lorenzo de Medici. He came to the papal throne in 1513, following
Julius II. He was at ease in social situations, a skilled diplomat,
demonstrated great skill as an administrator, and was an intelligent and
beneficent patron of the arts. He encouraged scholarly learning, and supported
the theatre, an art form considered to be of ambiguous morality until that time.
Most prominently, he supported the visual arts of painting and sculpture. He is
well known for his patronage of Raphael, whose paintings played a large role
in the redecoration of the Vatican. Under Leo X, the ruins of Rome began to be
more effectively preserved, and metaphorically, so did the morality of the
Papacy. When he died in 1521, Rome's Golden Age effectively ended, and the
Renaissance as a whole began to fade.

Commentary

Rodrigo Borgia, later Alexander VI, has assumed the role of the archetypical
Renaissance pope. Historians cite his exploits as pontiff as representative of
the nepotism and corruption that plagued the Papacy throughout the Renaissance
period. Certainly, the effect Alexander had upon Italy and upon the popular
view of the Papacy cannot be denied. Even in his own time, the Borgia family
took on legendary status in Italy as cruel and manipulative monsters. Many saw
the rise of Rodrigo Borgia to the papal throne as a sign of impending demise for
the Catholic Church. However, both Italy and the Catholic Church survived
Alexander VI's reign, and perhaps even learned some valuable lessons, for Julius
II and Pope Leo X reversed the slide of the Papacy and ushered in the Golden Age
of Rome, during which both the city and its rulers were admired and respected,
reversing the trend under which the Papacy had slipped into moral degradation
while the physical city itself rose to new heights.

The main project Pope Julius II undertook was the destruction and rebuilding of
St. Peter's basilica, the oldest and most sacred building in all of
Christianity, containing the tomb of St. Peter and of many past popes. Many
questioned and opposed the wisdom of the project, but Julius II insisted that
the building was in desperate need of repair and should be replaced with a
structure more worthy of the glory of its purpose. Once he began the planning
and destruction, he proceeded with zeal, never second-guessing his decision.
The destruction and rebuilding of St. Peter's soon became known throughout Italy
as a symbol of the descent and resurrection of Rome.

The rebuilding of Rome was undertaken at great cost, especially to the memoirs
of the past. Since the fall of Rome, popes and princes
had treated Rome as a vast quarry from which to extract treasure and building
materials. The Coliseum is the greatest monument to this destructive habit.
For centuries, Romans hacked away at the colossal structure, harvesting material
for foundations and marble inlay, and destroying one of the greatest
architectural creations of human history. Even so, the Coliseum remains the
largest structure in Rome. Many other buildings suffered a similar fate, and
were severely damaged, if not completely destroyed, before the spirit of
antiquarianism that was revived during Pope Leo X's reign saved many of the
remains of ancient Rome. Among Romans the passion for antiquarianism was not an
intellectual exercise as it was elsewhere, but rather a reaffirmation of their
lost status of glory. Romans began to grasp the details of their real, rather
than legendary, past.

Pope Leo X oversaw the Golden Age, the rise of humanism and antiquarianism to
its Renaissance apex. He was perhaps the closest thing to the enlightened
princes of the northern Italian states that the Papacy saw during the
Renaissance, a fact not surprising in light of his Medici lineage. He proved a
gifted administrator and a thoughtful and generous patron of the arts. He
inherited the staunch project of rebuilding St. Peter's basilica, which he
undertook determinedly in the name of the Church. Incidentally, this greatest
of Renaissance Popes also made the decision that turned out to be one of the
Chruch's greatest blunders. In an effort to finance the tremendous undertaking
of St. Peter's Basilica, Leo X authorized the sale of
indulgences to finance construction. Indulgences
were basically pardons for sin. Their sale was the final act in a long string
of offenses triggering the Protestant
Reformation, a movement which created a schism
in Christianity so large that it dominated history for centuries, and whose
effects have played and still play varied, nuanced, and fundamental roles in the
modern world.